By my reckoning, thats 27 riders that have crossed the line, registered as British/Irish [including Mr Pavey, who gets a little confused where he's from!]

I was pretty impressed to see how successful the entrants from the USA have been, considering their low volume of starts. Far more successful then us Brits in terms of standings, if only you guys could get some serious interest in the media, who knows what would happen!

The last time we had any true British contenders, and by that im going to stretch the basket slightly, would have been John Deacon [best finish 6th], who rode BMW and KTM, before he passed away. Following his lead would have been Patsy Quick [amateur, but KTM did eventually supply 2 bikes for her and Zippy, her co rider], Mick Extance [26th on a Honda 450 in 09] Nick Plumb or Stan Watt [Irish!], all have been essentially privateer efforts, with varying levels of support from the industry.

Aside from these names, there have been a multitude of riders having a go, but I would say all are far from being contenders.

It seems to me, that Sam is the first Brit to be on a full factory deal for the Dakar, which is no mean feat, when you consider how anti motorsport the UK can be. Theres no denying that living in the world's biggest sandpit has to have helped his cause and I wish him every success!

Thanks Biggles - no pressure on him then - Lol

Whatever happens there won't be a fitter and more prepared rider out there - as you say the sandy bits won't present too many problems - well, consider that it is the Dakar !

Thanks Troy - a question for you then, when was it the last time a Brit was a focus of a major Dakar challenge, with Honda selecting young Sam, for the reasons that have?

With Brit, Focus and Major Dakar Challenge in your question, Mark Thatcher springs to mind!

__________________

"What could possibly go wrong"

CBVRacing. "The race (Dakar) is what it is, it is being offered to racers, if they chose to sign up they should know that there are only 5 outcomes at the end of the two weeks: Finish, Mechanical, Abandon, Injuries, Death."

So, it was a bit boring at work tonight, i thought id do a bit of research to put together a list of all Brit finishers in the history of Dakar Moto.. funnily enough the hardest year to find results has proven to be 2011!

Ive always wondered who and how many had done it, having been told somewhere in the region of 20 finishers so far..

Very nice list!

Where did you find that info? I'd be interested how many austrian riders have finished the dakar.

Where did you find that info? I'd be interested how many austrian riders have finished the dakar.

Haha ok, bit of a hijacking, ill get back in my box now! As for the stats, I found the Dakar retrospective book on the website, lists everything from the very first Dakar up until 2009, after that, it was a case of checking online..